From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V1 #2 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Saturday, January 24 1998 Volume 01 : Number 002 In this issue: [scribes]: Title of lost book Re: [scribes]: beginner's questions ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 03:54:36 -0600 From: Cornelius Perkins Subject: [scribes]: Title of lost book Greetings. I'm trying to locate a replacement copy of a book which I had but which disappeared (sigh). Unfortunately, what complicates this search is the fact that I can't recall the title or author. (or the color, for those who remember the bookseller's complaint). I think the title included the words "writing masters". It certainly was a survey of writing masters and their published works over the 16th and 17th centuries. I was in the process a year ago of learning a hand from it, first published in the first book ever published by an English writing master (1572). Any ideas? Thanks, Jost - -- // Cornelius Perkins cperkins@nothinbut.net // http://www.nothinbut.net/~cperkins // In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 08:03:35 -0500 (EST) From: cav@storm.ca (Rick Cavasin) Subject: Re: [scribes]: beginner's questions Hello Astridhr, > > >1. How do you select vellum that is good to use? > To some extent, this will depend on what you want to use it for, your own personal preferences as an artist, and of course, the grim spectre of affordability. >2. What happens if you have a piece of vellum that >is curling? > It depends on how/why it is curling. Is it curling in response to changes in the ambient humidity of the room in which it is stored, or in response to paint/ink/gessoe that is being applied to it? >3. What is your recommended way to prepare vellum >for use? > Well, that one was debated a bit a few days ago. The consensus was that there are several schools of thought on the issue of whether or not it needed to be mounted on a board/frame prior to use. If you dampen it and mount it, chances are that you would have to do some preparation since the dampening/drying will re-glaze the surface, and if you want a 'napped' surface for calligraphy, you'll have to sand/pumice the surface again. If you are using the vellum without mounting, whether not it requires any preparation will depend on how it was supplied by the manufacturer, and what sort of surface you yourself prefer to work on. When I was first making vellum for sale, I had several clients who were chiefly miniaturists/illuminators, and their preference was for a very smooth vellum. So, this was the way I prepared my skins, figuring that if anyone really wanted a napped surface (say, for calligraphy), it's easy enough to sand a smooth surface (but once you have a napped surface, it's harder to get rid of it if you don't want it). I think the samples you have may be from that era. Since then, I shifted to making my skins with a fine nap (on the flesh side of full-grain skins, and both sides of the manuscript skins), as I've found this is about the best compromise, and seems to satisfy the largest range of clients (naturally, I CAN do custom work, if someone sends me a sample of what surface they want). So, again, it will depend on what you want to do with it, and what working surface you prefer. Different inks/paints will behave differently. Also, we need to remember that these are animal skins, and to some extent, each one is unique. They won't all have identical working properties. Similar skins from the same manufacturer may require slightly different handling. One of my clients who uses alot of vellum treats each skin as she would a new 'batch' of paper. She performs a few small tests on an offcut to gauge the behaviour before working on her piece. To some extent, preparation should probably be reactive. You do something to the vellum because you want to change something about the way it is behaving. It may well be that your piece of vellum can be used as is. That's what I strive for in my work. Not being a scribe myself, I'm going to go out on a limb here with a few symptoms and remedies: a) pen 'skates' on surface - sand with fine sandpaper (nothing coarser than about 400 grit, I would say) b) surface seems greasy, or ink beads - sanding may help, but rubbing with fine pumice powder will do better at absorbing the grease/oil c) ink blots/feathers - ink may be too watery or rubbing the vellum with gum sandarac should help this I'm sure several other scribes on this list can recommend various books that give instructions on preparing and working on vellum. I list several on the 'Hints' page of my web site. I'd like to offer this one caution: Though the people who write these books may have extensive experience working on vellum, they often seem to have used vellum from a limited number of manufacturers, or they write as if their readers will only have access to the sort of vellum produced from one manufacturer. Generalizing to the vellum made elsewhere has to be done with caution. What may be true for vellum from Cowleys' in England may not be true for vellum from Germany, Holland, Italy, Israel, Australia, Nepal, or dare I mention it, Canada. And if that was true today, it was CERTAINLY true in period, where methods of production would have varied from workshop to workshop, so instructions in period manuals should also be taken with a grain of salt. Cheers, Rick/Balderik http://www.niagara.com/~acavasin/rick/rcav.htm ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V1 #2 ***************************